Ministry of Information & Broadcasting
Speech of Sri M Venkaiah Nadiu, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting at the convocation of Mid-Career Training Programme to IIS officers at ISB Hyderabad on May 31st 2017.
Sri M. Venkaiah Nadiu, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting today attended the convocation of Mid-Career Training Programme to IIS officers held at ISB Hyderabad. On this occasion the highlights of his speech are as follows:
Friends,
• I am pleased to be here at the convocation ceremony of Phase IV training of IIS officers at ISB. There is a saying that “Only thing that is constant is CHANGE”. Change is the key for progress.
• The Government under the dynamic leadership of PM Modi is fulfilling the dream of Resurgent India through a series of reformatory initiatives.
• For example, October 2nd in India till 2014, was celebrated as a Day of the Birth Anniversary of the Father of the Nation. But since, 2014 there has been a change. Today, everyday is celebrated as a birthday of the Father of the Nation, in the form of Cleanliness. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan has today become a Jan Aandolan.
• Technology around us is changing at a rapid pace. It is important for India to be part of this not as a spectator but as an innovator and also as a front runner in bringing and adapting to these new technological innovations.
• My Ministry has taken up the initiative of providing our Information Service Officers skill upgradation through an institutionalised training policy.
• The objective was to plug the gaps in the Government’s communication approach in areas of content design, social marketing, branding, impact assessment and weaving technologies in the digital age.
• The need to constantly re-invent our understanding and perception through an institutionalised skill upgradation program which includes a re-examination of our approach towards the communication process was felt necessary.
• Training and development is vital part of the human resource development. It is assuming ever important role in wake of the advancement of technology which has resulted in ever increasing competition, rise in expectation of quality and service. It is also become more important globally in order to prepare human resource for new jobs.
• I am hopeful that the Media Strategy and Planning in the changing scenario of social advertising, a course module taught at ISB during the training of the officers, would benefit in defining the communication roadmap for the government social sector schemes and to ensure last mile reach.
• I am told that the Mid Career Training program at ISB for IIS officers covers diverse topics including Financial Management, Social Marketing, Brand Management, Digital age communication, Change management.
• In the current scenario, training in specific domains is incomplete without case studies and practical exposure. Case studies have proven to be an excellent way of practicing and applying new concepts. As such, they're very useful tools in learning and implementation.
• The different phase wise training for the IIS Officers have been designed keeping in mind the broad objective of the Government’s Communications needs as well as changing communication and technology paradigm.
• I am confident that the two weeks training program has offered all of you a fresh perspective, clarity on the nuances of communication management and given you tools and ideas to keep pace with the digital communication world.
• These training programs will certainly equip you to meet the challenges related to government communication in the years to come.
• The Government is giving importance to regional media and regional languages in the communication space in order to enhance the outreach of the Government.
• I firmly believe that the best possible way to communicate to people is in their own language.
• For this, we have taken a conscious decision to post officers of different ranks to regional offices. This ensures strengthening offices of the Ministry at these places. This also ensures that institutional development at regional places take place.
• Mass communication and media has undergone a sea change in the past two decades. The era of Scheduled News Bulletins has been replaced to Breaking News Syndrome. Hardly anyone can deny the influence that media has on all of us.
• Today we are all being increasingly integrated into an Information Society and the sheer reach and impact of the media on our lives can sometimes be almost alarming.
• The impact of fake news / mis-information on societal fabric of the Nation is tremendous. An effective mechanism needs to be worked out to ensure that such incidents are reduced to a minimum.
• Often the programmes of the Government are designed without proper emphasis on communication / IEC strategy almost treating it as a peripheral activity, leading to poor / faulty message reaching the general public.
• In fact, Government programmes should place communication strategy as part of the core components of any major developmental programme.
Social Media
• The recent advances in technology and communication space have completely overhauled the way the Government interacts with the citizens. This change being led by Social Media has ushered in a new era of Governance.
• Hence it is absolutely necessary for constant upgradation of skills of officers in light of development of new technologies.
• Today, we talk of Social Media everywhere. It has become the most effective medium to communicate thoughts, ideas and beliefs. For those who believe in Numbers, here’s a quick fact
a. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is the most followed World Leader on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Google Plus. On Facebook, our PM has over 40 Million followers and on Instagram he has more than 7 Million followers.
• Transparency is now a given; in the new digital age, citizens will not be content with just information; they will have ever higher expectations from us also on the context, promptness and way in which the information is communicated, not just on its substance.
• So, it is no longer enough to tell them that we are implementing GST; we need to tell them what it means for each of them; why we are doing it; what they need to do in order to derive the maximum benefit from it. We need to tell them at the right time, using all the right channels, in their language , in a way that is simple, clear and powerful; in a manner that interests them and resonates with them well enough for them to accept it and join hands withus.
• It is not enough to tell either; we need to listen to them as well, answer their questions, address their concerns, discover hidden problems and develop new solutions.
• The need of the hour is thus two-way, timely, sustained, personalized, creative and engaging communication, in support of national developmental goals.
• Social media gives an opportunity to do this in a very cost-effective manner; it is thus a very powerful tool to ensure Minimum Government, Maximum Governance.
• Therefore, Social Media offers tremendous opportunities for correct and un-biased portrayal provided the organizations are proactive in disseminating information.
• I would like to compliment the Indian School of Business for its stellar performance in less than one and a half decade of its inception and for being consistently ranked among the top in the business. And also particularly, for their initiative of bringing the best of the brains in different disciplines together for brainstorming on contemporary issues from time to time.
Background note on Mid-Career Training Programme for IIS officers at ISB, Hyderabad
The ISB has been running the Mid- Career Training Programme for Indian Information Service  Phase IV.
• During the training, the officers who are being promoted/ have been promoted to Joint Secretary are trained to prepare them for assuming the roles and responsibilities of their higher posts.
• The training is in two parts- a two-week training module in ISB Hyderabad and a ten day exposure training programme with Berkeley University, California.
• The current batch is the third batch of the Indian Information Service trained at the ISB. There are 32 officers in the batch.
Training Modules:
The training Modules for Phase IV seeks to instill management ideas and core competencies like team leadership, transformational leadership, change leadership and financial management as well as specialized competencies in the form of social and digital media planning, social marketing and brand management and behavioural change communication all of which is required at middle management level.
The courses in ISB during the last three batches have been customized for every batch based on the feedback received on the relevance of the modules and have been tweaked to meet the requirements of the Cadre authorities.
For this batch, ISB has developed a practical module to apply all the lessons learnt during the course of the lectures to be presented by the participants in the form of Action Learning Projects.
Six Flagship Schemes have been identified for devising relevant communication projects.